High Commissioner mr. Bernadina explains:
It was Commissioner Gerold Dompig himself who asked to be removed from the Holloway case
DIARIO Aruba
4/7/2006

ORANJESTAD (AAN) -- DIARIO interviewed High Commissioner mr. Ronny Bernadina, related with the changes that arose surrounding the investigation of the case of the disappearance of the American student, Natalee Holloway, which is still underway.

The High Commissioner explained that the police force designates the persons who will work on certain cases, and in this case, Commissioner Gerold Dompig was working on this investigation, but what happened is that last Monday, Mr. Dompig approached Mr. Bernadina, and asked for his retirement as lead investigator on the tactical aspects of the Holloway case.

Bernadina explained that when such a case presents itself, all the responsibility goes to the Public Prosecutor.

The High Commissioner said that he doesn’t want to go into details on the reasons why Mr. Dompig took such a decision, but mr. Bernadina made it be known that he sat down with the Attorney General already and they put another person at the head of the investigation. The High Commissioner reiterated that Mr. Gerold Dompig himself asked to be removed.

The High Commissioner indicated that the team is actually the one that does the main task, and not the tactical guide.

Currently, the investigative team is reinforced by the help of Holland, in what refers to the technical, material and search aspects, which is much appreciated.
These are parts that come into play in the ‘procesverbaal’ and that at any given moment, the Public Prosecutor has to present to the judge, and this will not bring any problems for the investigation process.

About the fact that Mr. Dompig is no longer assistant [deputy] to mr. Bernadina anymore, the latter said that every year there are changes in this position, and it had to have happened last January, and in this case, Commissioner Krozendijk is mr. Bernadina’s replacement for this year and for 2007 they will name another person. He emphasized that this is a clarification he wanted to make.